HDMI2VGA Converter - xrandr does not detect VGA monitor connected

I have a HDMI2VGA converter connected to my laptop (HDMI) and to my monitor (VGA).

xrandr shows HDMI as disconnected, so I can't activate it (from a standard user POV). I succeeded in activating the monitor using xrandr commands to set output, but the modes are of poor quality since system does not detect the monitor.

I think the OS is not detecting the monitor due to it being behind the adapter.

The questions are:

What can I do to allow my mother (my standard user) to switch from laptop screen to monitor or to extend the desktop on the HDMI monitor?
What can I do to get a good quality output? (the monitor is working okay, I use it through the VGA connector in other PC)

Here is some data:

uname -a
Linux dhcppc2 4.14.8-300.fc27.x86_64 #1 SMP Wed Dec 20 19:00:18 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

(it is happening in my Fedora machine and in my mother's Linux Mint notebook)

sudo lshw -c video
  *-display:0               
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       version: 09
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
       resources: irq:16 memory:fe400000-fe7fffff memory:d0000000-dfffffff ioport:cc00(size=8) memory:c0000-dffff
  *-display:1 UNCLAIMED
       description: Display controller
       product: Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2.1
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.1
       version: 09
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=0
       resources: memory:fe800000-fe8fffff

lspci | grep VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)

xrandr -q
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1366 x 768, maximum 8192 x 8192
LVDS-1 connected primary 1366x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 310mm x 174mm
   1366x768      60.10*+
   1024x768      60.04    60.00  
   960x720       60.00  
   928x696       60.05  
   896x672       60.01  
   800x600       60.00    60.32    56.25  
   700x525       59.98  
   640x512       60.02  
   640x480       60.00    59.94  
   512x384       60.00  
   400x300       60.32    56.34  
   320x240       60.05  
VGA-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
   1366x768      60.10  
   1024x768      60.04  
DP-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
   1366x768      60.10  
DP-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

(modes in HDMI outputs are modes I added by command line)

The commands I run to activate monitor are:

xrandr --addmode HDMI-1 1366x768
xrandr --output HDMI-1 --mode 1366x768 --left-of LVDS-1

The adapter has a HDMI input, a USB connector to get power, a video VGA analog output, an audio output.

JuanMatias

Posted 2017-12-26T15:10:55.090

Reputation: 21

Does the system pick up the EDID information when both the adapter and the VGA monitor are on? (Check with xrandr --verbose) If you connect the analog VGA monitor to the other PC, can you get and decode the EDID information of the monitor from that PC?

– dirkt – 2017-12-26T18:58:27.967

for the 2nd problem: you can create new resolutions not "advertised" using the tool cvt (there's also the similar tool gtf ). On Debian both are part of xserver-xorg-core so they should be available by default everywhere. Use xrandr --newmode with the output of cvt to create it, then xrandr --addmode to use it on the chosen display output. – A.B – 2017-12-26T23:17:29.823

@dirkt No, it can't get that info when using converter. When monitor is connected through VGA connector (other PC) info is get. – JuanMatias – 2017-12-28T15:29:15.393

@A.B Indeed I did it, I added a new mode (1366x768) both in Mint and Fedora, but I have two problems here: 1. Quality was so bad (may be resolution was wrong?) 2. I need a solution that a simple user (a.k.a. my mother) can use. – JuanMatias – 2017-12-28T15:31:48.927

So can you set the correct EDID by forcing a custom EDID (with the binary data copied from the other PC) when using the converter, e.g. in xorg.conf? (Google, details depend on graphics card and driver). This may or may not work, if the converter is expecting other modes, so make sure to try several modes (or all). – dirkt – 2017-12-28T16:14:29.697

HDMI2VGA Converter - xrandr does not detect VGA monitor connected

No answers